Thursday, March 25, 2010

Engaging in floor bugle

So, I thought I would start out by making the title of this post in Japanese, saying "first post". I went to Babelfish and typed that in, and then clicked translate to Japanese. I received a Japanese phrase, but it was in Kanji so I couldn't read it. Thus, I plugged that phrase in and asked it to translate to English just to be sure it was okay. The result? "Engaging in floor bugle".

I hope our trip isn't all like that.

So Jorie and I are going to Japan with NMU art history teacher Mits Oba and 8 other NMU students. We're going to study Japanese visual culture. We're very excited, and just yesterday we booked our flight. I've never been on a plane before, let alone traveled outside of the country, so it's definitely going to be a new experience.

The trip will be challenging for both of us due to our vegan diet, but especially challenging due to my disability, but I think it will be very much worth it!

The name of the program is Spirited Away: Japanese Visual Culture, so that's where the name of our blog came from.

Japanese language is known in Japan as Nihongo. I know some words and I can read most Katakana and Hirigana, but Kanji is another matter. We've ordered some key chain flashcards to start memorizing important Kanji, and a Nihongo workbook is on the way as well.

頑張ります! "gan-bare-ma-su" or, I will do my best!